1.3

1.3

The morning went without much incident, I woke up early to have time to build my Astral Shield and go over the Force Shield I designed last night. The Force Shield was worthless for everyday use, it required too much power, leaving the power orb visible, to take anything more than a standard punch.

I had gone through my full morning routine, jogging to school too since I figured I could use the exercise, to find Taylor waiting for me at the school entrance. 'She must walk to school because the buses aren't here yet.' It was a little difficult to ignore the giant silver sea anemone around her but after a few moments I was able to push it out of my awareness. Let it never be said I can't lie to myself.

As soon as she opened her mouth I interrupted with the first half coherent thing that came to mind, "No! you cannot marry me just to call yourself Taylor Taylor." I used the resulting confusion in an attempt to pass by her. She just closed her eyes and shook her head saying something under her breath I couldn't make out. I'm sure it was something flattering, really. Then she took out the notebook from yesterday and handed it to me - forcing me to stop to at least to get my notes back.

"Sorry about yesterday. Also I kind of read the notes... But I'll make it up to you right now by telling you the biggest thing you're missing." Taylor said with a smug look. I looked her over for a minute, She seems like she -could- be a gaming type, or at least a bookworm. Could be solid advice.

I nod and take the notebook "Alright, hit me with it, if it's any good we'll be even".

She takes on a very serious expression, then says "All I need is one word." At this she has my full attention and she grins smugly then raises her eyebrows for emphasis, "Fireball."

I blink. It takes me a moment, then I cover my face in shame. After a few moments where I swear she's trying not to laugh -not trying very hard, but trying all the same- I drop the notebook and with my best 'tearful heartfelt' acting voice I cry "You're an angel!" and suddenly embrace her. She panicked when I exploded.

The instant the blinding blue-teal light faded Taylor tore herself out of my arms and we were both left rubbing our eyes under our glasses. Apparently I didn't take hugs into consideration when I built my Astral Shield - I think it tried to push against Taylor's core and it caused the mana needed to crank up to visible levels, then ran out of power and consumed itself. It did give me a few more things to consider though. Oh, Taylor is yelling at me, I should probably listen to that...

"-was that!?" she then widened her eyes and whipped her head around to see if anyone saw. I'm pretty sure all I missed was some cursing followed by 'What the HELL was that!?' The two other people that were outside the school weren't paying close attention so all they caught was a flash of light but could only make out the direction it came from, and with all of us looking around the only thing that made Taylor and I suspicious was that we were slightly more freaked out about it.

Once I recovered my wits, roughly the same time I recovered my sight, I grabbed my notebook then walked into the school building, towards the cafeteria where students are supposed to wait until classes start, acting for all the world like nothing happened. Taylor took a moment to realize I was fleeing the scene and ran a couple of steps to grab my arm "No, you don't just - just - do something like that and walk off, what the hell was that?"

To which I smartly replied "What was what? I didn't see a surge of blinding light. Nope, you -must- be seeing things." and continued walking. I only had a couple of inches on her but Taylor was all skin and bones so with her holding onto my arm I just kinda dragged her along.

Taylor let go after a moment with a small gasp, which I was certain I would not like the meaning of, and stopped walking. When I glanced back her eyes were wide and I could practically see her put the puzzle together. She whispered just loud enough for me to hear "That's it isn't it? It's true" she was now looking at my notebook.... damnit, I knew I wasn't going to like that 'gasp of realization'... Well at least she promised not to say anything, but in a school like this who knows?

She suddenly started digging in her pockets and grabbed a pen and a receipt from some coffee place, flipped it over and wrote something on it, folded the receipt in half and handed it to me saying "Here, we're even." When I reached for it she yanked it back saying "BUT- Only if you agree to talk this weekend."

I grab the bridge of my nose and take a few seconds to think. She's probably giving me info on her powers. Useful but not anything huge since I'm already expecting master 10 there. Now that I think about it, my shield is down, I'm just glad she isn't forcing me to take the deal. The trade-off for the info; This could simply be random teenage cape needs someone to talk to, I'm the same age, in a similar situation and since I already know the secret and am more likely to run than get involved I'm 'safe' and can relate. Alternatively she could be tossing a recruitment pitch, or be trying to bring me somewhere to be forcibly recruited... that isn't very viable though. She already knows who I am. If she wanted to forcibly recruit she'd just need to threaten my family, though she could do some convoluted 'stay here while we do this suspicious activity. Oh look you're a criminal by association, you have to join us now' thing. 'eh, what the hell.' I reach out my hand "I pick the time and place."

She narrows her eyes "I get veto rights."

I grumble for a moment just for show then nod "Deal." she smiles and places the receipt in my hand. I place the note in my pocket and smile at her look of disappointment. "I'll read it later, I'm not giving you the satisfaction of seeing whatever sort of shock you expect." She narrows her eyes at me in a false glare and I wiggle my eyebrows at her as appropriate response to the glare, then turn and continue towards the cafeteria.

I was a little surprised to find Taylor still following me. When I shot her a questioning look she replied "I'm pretty sure Sophia is pissed at you more than me today, and you're tall so you can be seen from anywhere in the cafeteria. Since I have such a convenient scapegoat I'll try actually hanging around a little."

A bit of confusion came over me, "I thought she was your minion?". walked over to a back corner of the cafeteria and took a seat at a table there with my back to the small crowd when Taylor sat on the other side. At her confused look I continued quietly, "I mean, you did the thing to turn her from 'offended girl' to 'murder rage beast', right? There's no way that anger was natural."

She giggled. She covered her mouth and looked a little surprised at her reaction. I looked much -more- surprised, she didn't seem the giggling type, in fact I was almost convinced her humor had been locked in a dark cell and kept warm with a straitjacket. She shook her head and a serious look came back over her face, "No, She's been bullying me for over two years. How could you not know about that? Everyone knows that."

I tilted my head a bit saying "Erm, Taylor? Have you -met- me?" I hold up my fingers to start ticking off points "We have no classes together where I could witness the events. If someone doesn't get my attention first I pretty much ignore whatever everyone around me says. My school friends, that I could hear any rumors from, consist of -Greg-. And I spend most of my school time doodling ideas - to the point Greg thought I was a low end tinker last year."

Taylor just looked at me stunned. "You are just completely oblivious to the world around you aren't you?" she shakes her head in disbelief.

I raise a finger to emphasize the importance of what I'm about to say, and I take on the best 'heroic voice' I can manage "My name is Oblivium, fear not for I am here to ignore the day!" I swear no one gets my humor. Taylor looks like she has a headache.

I notice the world for a moment (yes I know, rare occurrence) and realize the volume of the cafeteria has been on the rise as more students filter in from the buses that have finally arrived. We'd probably have to head out to class in about ten to fifteen minutes, but that gave me plenty of time. I slapped the notebook on the table, startling Taylor out of what I'm pretty sure was well deserved self pity for having to deal with me. I opened the book to a mostly blank page and looked at her seriously. Then I wrote 'Fireball - ' on the page. "How would you propose to change universal energies into a semi-controllable yet incredibly dangerous ball of heat and light?" She rolled her eyes.

We fiddled around with ideas I jotted down for a few minutes, then Taylor stiffened and I felt like every eye in the room was on me. Not a very comfortable situation. It was also all I really needed to know to be able to tell Sophia had noticed me. I slid my notebook over to Taylor with the pen and kicked my bag to her side under the table too. Now that things I may not be able to salvage were out of the line of fire, I had to decide what to do. I hate social sparring. I stand up and disentangle myself from the table combo seat thing the cafeteria uses, then turned to face 'Ms. 10lbs of anger in a 5lb bag'. It didn't take long to find her since the crowd had so nicely spread out away from her. I shoved my hand out towards her saying "Hi, I'm Will, the guy you promised to kill."

Sophia looks at my hand with an expression I'm pretty sure is reserved primarily for restroom stalls in merchant territory. She turns to face Emma, I'm starting to think they're attached at the hip, and says "Is this guy too stupid to understand I want him to roll into a ditch and die?"

Emma just glances at me and says "He's probably just a virgin so desperate that death threats are a turn on." She looked a little uncomfortable, like Sophia had put her on the spot and the insult wasn't quite up to snuff.

Having my greeting ignored, I stepped up to the next level and gave Sophia a hug. I had expected it to be like hugging a rabid cat on its fourth cup of coffee. As soon as I touched her personal bubble I found out it was much more like being punched in the face with a brick. Mainly because she tensed and punched me in the face instantly - and I'm pretty sure her fist is made of brick. I barely reacted enough to move my face so rather than my nose exploding I just had blinding pain through my cheekbone under my left eye. It did succeed in interrupting my attempted hug. I grunted and stepped back saying "Yeesh, the small ones are always the most vicious" Sophia was glaring daggers at me and cupping her hand. I'm guessing she's part of a gang if she can punch like that but still get hurt. She's probably used to punching with some sort of protection over her fingers, you don't get that in martial arts, you break boards bare handed and get used to the pain when it doesn't break.

Sophia was growling now "What the fuck is your problem!?" her whole body was tense. I'm guessing she -really- doesn't like hugs.

I tilt my head, one hand feeling the swelling coming up under my eye. I replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world "You made me feel bad so I wanted a hug." When I looked around a little more I saw a teacher had seen the altercation and was doing nothing to stop it. Seriously, this Sophia girl must have some major pull for the staff to just let this crap go. So far there's been a death threat, physical violence and... well it doesn't stack up to those, but running in the halls.

Sophia just gave me a false pitying look saying "Aww, do you need your mommy?" most of the group laughed but my eyes glittered.

"That's a -great- idea!" I whipped out my phone and dialed home.

Sophia looked on edge now and seemed to be considering taking my phone, or smashing it if necessary. "What the hell are you doing?". Maybe my gang idea was off, a gang member wouldn't care about a small suspension. Oh well, it was making her nervous so that's good enough. Her expression changed back to death glare and she turned to leave the crowd "Let's get out of here, this pussy isn't worth it."

My mom answered the phone "Will, honey, what's wrong? You know you're not supposed to make calls in school."

"Hey mom, yeah, a girl with anger management problems beat me up, I was using you for a bluff, hope you don't mind."

"Aww, did wittle Willy get beaten up by a giwrl?"

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. I'll see you at home mom."

"Bye hun"

When I hung up there were a few people staring at me, one of which was Taylor. She looked like she didn't know if she should pity me, laugh at me or be impressed that I got Sophia to leave in a little over a minute. She shook her head and pulled a page from Greg's book again by just ignoring the whole thing. She kicked my stuff back over to me and slid the notebook back saying "Shouldn't you get that looked at by the nurse before class? We only have like five minutes."

I nod and grab my stuff "Yep, see you later Taylor."

After the nurse visit I went to my classroom, interrupted the class when I came in in the middle but with a note from the nurse everything was settled, they decided an excuse along the lines of a roughhousing accident. Once I was settled in I slipped the receipt Taylor had given me out of my pocket. I looked around and could still see quite a number of the silver threads but when I took out the paper the ones in my immediate area suddenly seemed more active. Probably just my imagination. I unfolded the paper to read the one word written there. 'Bugs'. My head thumped down on my desk louder than I had planned and interrupted the class again for a few moments. I'm pretty sure the fly on the corner of my desk was laughing at me.

the rest of the school day was pretty normal for me, though I spent more time practicing with my mana than listening to lessons. My grades are going to take a hit for a while, but I'm a pretty good student so at least they won't drop to failing. I didn't see Greg all day, I assumed he was stewing about me being 'popular' because Taylor wanted to talk to me - she probably cleared up her misunderstanding with Greg, hence the avoidance.

When I got home late (yay detention) I explained the situation to my parents, who laughed at me and teased mercilessly about how I got beat up by a girl and then the serious talk about 'could have handled it better, should have filed a complaint, etc' But both of them knew Winslow was a crappy school and infested with gangs and sometimes teachers wouldn't go against them for fear of retaliation. Based on my story they agreed, basically we agreed to just not make a big deal about it as long as it stays small.

That evening I used one of the ideas Taylor had written down to create a 'heat' command. I turned on a burner on the stove top and focused on the mana there and tried to infuse it through the air to feel how it was moving. Between feeling that and knowing heat is just intense vibrations, the movement of molecules being the heat, I rigged up a spell that created lots of incredibly tiny force bursts that all moved against each other as I kept power to it. Now that I had a basis I could refine it during meditation. At it's current level it felt more of a small space heater than a fireball, but some refining would see it get there.

Wednesday and Thursday went similarly, I had become Sophia's target of choice in the morning, she was getting more violent, but now I expected the viciousness so I avoided the worst of the damage. This Left Taylor feeling somewhat safe to be in the semi-social environment again and hanging out with a friend... Though I was still hesitant to call her 'friend', we were 'friendly' but I was holding off judgment until after the promised 'talk'. Taylor was invaluable for her help in coming up with new ways to use mana, but I was no slouch either. Two heads definitely helped progress there. There was also a locker prank, some of my doodles and designs I do in school I kept in my locker. Wednesday when I checked my locker a folder of them was missing and the others had ink dumped over them - no huge loss really.

Thursday evening is when things went to hell. I got detention for some false accusation from one of Sophia's cronies so I was late getting out of school. On the way home I felt three guys walking up behind me, but at first I didn't think much about it. Then I felt tension fill the air and my adrenaline spiked. My paranoia kicked in and I took off in a dead sprint and luckily barely avoided the guys on either side of me that had tried to grab me. My luck didn't hold out though, guy number three had a taser, and when I looked over my shoulder my attention was on the fact that he looked rather similar to Tire Iron man I had met on Sunday. Then everything became pain. A few seconds later I saw a needle jammed into my arm. It gave me just enough time to hope it was a tranquilizer and not anything more malicious. Then everything faded to black.